Rovio推出首款免費版《憤怒的小鳥》
Rovio Entertainment Ltd., the games company behind the immensely popular Angry Birds franchise, is changing its business strategy, aiming to earn more money by making its games free.
打造了風靡全球的《憤怒的小鳥》(Angry Birds)系列的遊戲公司Rovio娛樂有限公司(Rovio Entertainment Ltd.)正在調整其商業策略，意圖通過提供免費遊戲來創造更多收入。The company has spent years building a revenue base by offering Angry Birds games that cost money to download. But now it has changed course and entered the world of so-called freemium games, where the game costs nothing to download, but is packed with features that users must pay to access, such as ways to speed up the game or increase power.
多年來，Rovio娛樂通過需付費下載的《憤怒的小鳥》系列遊戲確立了收入基礎。而如今公司轉變軌道，進入了所謂的免費增值遊戲(freemium games)領域。這一商業模式下的遊戲均可免費下載，但附加有一些須付費才能使用的功能，例如加速遊戲進程或提升力量。Rovio, which burst onto the mobile-games scene in 2009, released 'Angry Birds Go!' on a freemium basis last month. While the company has experimented with the free-to-play strategy in the past, this is the first time an Angry Birds game has been solely designed to compete with other freemium games, such as Supercell's 'Clash of Clans' or King's 'Candy Crush.'
Rovio娛樂在2009年進軍移動遊戲市場，並於上個月推出了免費增值遊戲《Angry Birds Go!》。儘管公司此前曾嘗試過免費遊戲策略，但這是《憤怒的小鳥》系列第一款意在與其他免費增值遊戲相競爭的遊戲，例如Supercell的《部落戰爭》(Clash of Clans)以及King的《糖果粉碎傳奇》(Candy Crush)。
Still, the strategy could help Rovio crack the list of top-grossing apps. All of the top 10 highest-grossing apps in Apple Inc. AAPL -1.41% 's app store in 2013 were games, but only one of these, Swedish game developer Mojang AB's 'Minecraft,' was a paid app. Angry Birds games failed to place in the app store's 10 highest-grossing mobile-game apps in 2013, according to the research company Distimo.
而該策略有望幫助Rovio娛樂闖進收入最高遊戲的榜單。2013年蘋果公司(Apple Inc. ,AAPL)應用商店收入前10名全部爲遊戲類應用，而其中只有瑞典遊戲開發商Mojang AB的《Minecraft》是付費遊戲。根據調研公司Distimo的數據，《憤怒的小鳥》系列遊戲沒能闖進2013年收入最高移動遊戲應用的前10名。But Rovio is beginning to see its games not as profit generators in and of themselves, but rather a tool to boost the sales of thousands of Angry Birds-themed products-ranging from mascara to theme parks-and build awareness ahead of the first feature-length Angry Birds cartoon, set to premiere in July 2016.
然而Rovio娛樂已不再將遊戲產品視作爲獲利來源，而是開始將它當做一種工具，以幫助促進《憤怒的小鳥》系列主題產品（囊括了睫毛膏和主題公園在內的衆多產品）的銷售收入，併爲計劃在2016年7月首映的第一部長篇同名動畫片宣傳造勢。Roughly 45% of Rovio's 2012 revenue of 152.2 million euros ($209.2 million) came from the sale of licensed merchandise, up steeply from 2011.
2012年Rovio娛樂實現收入1.522億歐元（合2.092億美元），其中約45%來自特許商品收入，較2011年有大幅增長。'Free-to-play is new for us,' Jami Laes, Rovio's executive vice president for games, said in an interview. 'That's why we are taking it slow.'
公司執行副總裁拉埃斯(Jami Laes)在接受採訪時說，免費遊戲對於我們來說是一項新事物，所以我們要慢慢來。Mr. Laes said the move is designed primarily to get more people interacting with the Angry Birds franchise, which has already attracted two billion downloads to date and has made Rovio one of the best-known players in the industry. 'Free is obviously a great price point to get our product and entertainment experiences into the hands of more consumers,' he said.
拉埃斯說這一舉措主要是爲了讓更多人有機會體驗《憤怒的小鳥》系列遊戲，迄今該系列遊戲已吸引來20億次下載量，還使Rovio娛樂成爲業內最富盛名的公司之一。拉埃斯說，免費遊戲顯然是一個極佳的價格點，它能讓更多的消費者接觸到我們的產品和娛樂體驗。
